In many areas, homes and businesses are susceptible to flooding. Flood water from rain or other natural or unnatural events can rise at very fast speeds, usually from the ground level, and cause serious damages to the exterior and interior of a building. This is a global problem because flooding occurs in many countries and regions all across the world. The damages are widespread and severe, with lasting consequences. According to the National Weather Services, flooding caused more than five billion dollars of damages in 2010 in the United States. The problem of flooding is real and significant, justifying comprehensive and extensive solutions, at least part of which requires protection of buildings from flood damages.
When flood water rises, it usually accumulates outside building structures such as residential homes and business setups. In many instances, the water flows or leaks into the interior of the building. Even if the flood water is temporarily kept out, it may still cause significant damages to the exterior wall and the foundation of the building, making the structure unstable and resulting in reduction of property values. It would be desirable to have a system to keep the flood water away from the building and reduce the damages. To assure widespread usage, it is also important to have a protection mechanism that is effective, easy to install, and inexpensive.
Some devices and systems have been developed to prevent flood water from serious invasion of a building. These designs, however, show shortcomings in one aspect or another. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,456 discloses an apparatus for protecting structures from flood waters having a channel surrounding the structure to be protected, the channel having at least in part a bottom and side walls with reinforcement means therewithin or attaching a collapsible water-impermeable sheeting which, when not in use would be stored within the channel, and when in use would be raised to an erected position around the entirety of the structure. The sheeting would be sealably anchored within the channel on its lower edge by concrete, and therefore would prevent water from coming into contact with the structure. The apparatus would also have the means for allowing air to communicate between the exterior and the interior structure and a means for covering the channel to protect the sheeting while the sheeting is stored within the channel.
This design, however, has one significant disadvantage—the requirement that the protecting sheet needs to be erected when there is a possibility of flooding. Such a design is inconvenient, unreliable and unsafe. Erecting a barrier outside a building, which in some cases can be vast, may be a time consuming and energy depleting job. Without special tools, it is very inconvenient, or even impossible, for a person to do. In addition, it is possible that the person taking care of the building is not at the site when the sign that flood is to occur becomes obvious. This is especially true for business sites. The design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,456 and similar inventions do not address such concerns. Moreover, it is dangerous for a person to try to erect barriers, most likely in pouring rain, when flooding is about to occur.
There are also designs using mechanisms that do not require special attention before flooding. For example, GB 2,397,086 discloses a flood protection system including a floatation body securely affixed to a flexible, waterproof barrier and guide rollers running in guide rails affixed to the property to be protected. The other end of the flexible waterproof barrier is affixed in a secure and waterproof manner to the bottom of the container for the flexible waterproof barrier when at rest. The barrier container is sunk into the ground immediately adjacent to the boundary of the property to be protected.
This design, however, does not address the issue that rain water may fall to the space between the floatation body and the house. Since the water is falling exclusively from a higher position into and beside the container, it is very likely that the floatation body and the waterproof barrier would have water on both sides, negating the result to protect the building from water invasion and soaking.
The current invention, however, addresses all the concerns in protecting a building from flooding and the disadvantages inherent in the related arts. Various implements are known in the art, but fail to address all of the problems solved by the invention described herein. Two embodiments of this invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in more detail herein below.